NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-20-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

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I'm Peter Sagle. NPR is very serious, mostly. It treats newsmakers with all due respect, almost all the time. It brings you the most important information about the issues that really matter, usually, and it never asks famous people about things they don't know anything about, except once in a while. Join us for the great exception. Listen to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the news quiz from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rom. The Trump administration says a deal with China over TikTok, will be signed in the coming days. Citing national security concerns, Congress had passed a law that the popular video app be shut down in the U.S., if its Chinese owner, Bight Dance, doesn't put it under control of American investors. Trump had delayed the law's implementation during negotiations. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says the deal just needs to be signed.

This deal means that TikTok will be majority owned by Americans in the United States. There will be seven seats on the board that control. the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans, and the data and privacy will be led by one of America's greatest tech companies, Oracle, and the algorithm will also be controlled by America as well. Levitt was interviewed on Fox News. The top federal prosecutor in Northern Virginia has left his job after he was pressured to resign by President Trump. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports he had been investigating several of Trump's perceived political enemies.

Eric Siebert was a longtime career prosecutor in Virginia who advanced to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office this year. Seabert had been in charge of investigations into New York Attorney General Tish James and former FBI director Jim Comey. But he expressed doubts about pursuing any charges in those cases against the prominent Trump critics. On social media, the president says Seabert did not quit, but that Trump fired him. Virginia's two Democratic senators said he's an ethical prosecutor who was pushed out for refusing to pursue Trump's vendettas. The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia handles some of the country's most important national security and espionage cases. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. The CDC's Advisory Committee and Immunization Practices voted this week

to no longer recommend a combination shot for measles, mumps, and rebella for children under the age of four. This concerns some public health officials, including those who dealt with a measles outbreak in Texas this year. Samantha Larned of member station KTTZ reports. Dr. Catherine Wells is the director of Lubbock Public Health, a major coordinator during the West Texas measles outbreak, two-thirds of the more than 700 confirmed cases or in children. She says that while the MMR and chickenpox vaccines remain as separate recommendations for children, parents will have fewer choices. We saw the impact of what happens when we have large unvaccinated populations. And in Texas, you know, vaccines vary. That's a choice, but we want to make sure that we have all those tools available so that parents can make those choices. The committee's recommendations will affect what health providers carry, what insurance will cover, and what's available through the federal Vaccines for Texas Children program.

For NPR News, I'm Samantha Larned in Lubbock. This is NPR News in Washington. The Senate has confirmed President Trump's pick to be UN ambassador. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports the vote to confirm Michael Waltz comes just in time for the United Nations General Assembly meeting this month in New York. Senators voted 47 to 43 to approve the former Florida congressman to serve as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. Mike Walts was briefly national security advisor until he mistakenly added a journalist to a signal group chat about sensitive information on U.S. airstrikes in Yemen. The scandal followed him to his confirmation hearing where some senators questioned his fitness for a top government job. In the hearing, Waltz vowed to push for reforms at the U.N. and said after 80 years, it has, in his words, drifted from its core mission of peacekeeping.

President Trump is expected to address the U.N. next Tuesday. Michelle Kellerman and PR News, the State Department. More than 150 political leaders from around the world are expected to attend the U.N. General Assembly. Secretary General O'Otonio Guterres says they have much to discuss. We are facing a global crisis. Conflicts are multiplying in the context in which geopolitical divides do not allow to effectively address them. There is a sense of impunity. Every country believes they can do whatever they want.

Before the General Assembly speeches begin on Tuesday, leaders are to meet tomorrow on Monday to discuss how to end the war in Gaza. Some countries have pledged to formally recognize a Palestinian state, although some have conditions for that recognition. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News.